Date: November 22, 2016

The Las Vegas NHL franchise tonight announced it will be known as the Vegas Golden Knights™. The long-awaited name of the city’s first major-league sports franchise was revealed during a public ceremony at the Toshiba Plaza outside T-Mobile Arena.

During this historic event, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman shared comments about the excitement of naming the 31st NHL team; General Manager George McPhee spoke about building a team and the power behind the Vegas Golden Knights; and Bill Foley, majority owner of the Vegas Golden Knights unveiled the team name.

“We want our team to be known for dedication, honor, strength, courage and a commitment to never give up – both on the ice and off,” said Foley. “We want our team to be committed to teamwork, service to this great city and integrity in all things – and we wanted a name and logo that represented all of this and was unique to Las Vegas and our community. Vegas Golden Knights is that name.”

Foley explained, “We selected ‘Knights’ because knights are the defenders of the realm and protect those who cannot defend themselves. They are the elite warrior class.”

The team’s colors – steel grey, gold, red and black – reflect the community and the focus of the team:

Steel grey represents strength and durability

Nevada is the largest producer of gold in the United States, it is a highly-valued precious metal and is a color seen in the Las Vegas terrain

Red is from the Vegas skyline, the desert and the beauty of the Red Rock canyons; red is also a color associated with the readiness to serve

Black represents power and intensity

Drawing on themes associated with knights, the helmet in the team’s logo includes a ‘V’ to represent Las Vegas. The secondary logos include swords that create the star from the iconic “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign.

“The Vegas Golden Knights team name and logo embody this great city and the mission of our team. When people see it, we want them to say ‘These guys never give up. These guys are going to win’,” said Foley.

Golden Knights team apparel and gear is now available online at shop.nhl.com and adidas.comand at the NHL Powered by Reebok flagship store in New York City.

The official team website is nhl.com/goldenknightsand the official team app is the NHL App. Fans can follow the team on Facebook: Vegas Golden Knights; Twitter @goldenknights; Instagram: @lvgoldenknights; and Snapchat: lvgoldenknights. Fans can also join in the conversation using #BoldInGold.

The Vegas Golden Knights will begin play in the 2017-2018 season.

Media can obtain team graphics at media.NHL.com.

About Vegas Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights is a National Hockey League franchise owned and operated by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, LLC. The Vegas Golden Knights was established by founding partners Bill Foley and his family and the Maloof family.

While growing up in Islington, Karim Kerbouche discovered a passion for ice hockey after a friend gave him a Sega Mega Drive game – and, after watching his first live match at the age of 12, he was totally hooked.

More than two decades later, Kerbouche has gone on to become head of Hockey Algeria, leading the country’s first ever representative team to a creditable third-place finish in the inaugural African Club Cup this year.

To achieve that, the 34-year-old had to return to the computer for an extensive internet search to locate fellow players of Algerian origin in Europe and North America.

Kerbouche, who attended Central Foundation School, recalled: “I love football but I wasn’t that good at it and, once I found ice hockey, I left all the other sports behind.

“On my 12th birthday my mum took me to see Lee Valley Lions and I fell in love with the sport straight away – the speed, the physicality and the toughness of it.

“I went on to play for Haringey Wolves’ junior side and studied sport and leisure at college, but I always wondered if there could be an ice hockey team in Algeria.

“I started searching for other players of Algerian origin, going through stats on French websites and emailing teams to contact people who had Algerian-sounding names.

“It turned out that there were quite a few players in France as well as Canada and it seemed many of them felt the same, but no-one had taken the initiative.”

In 2008, Kerbouche managed to obtain funding for his newly-formed team to represent Algeria at an Arab Cup tournament in Abu Dhabi and scored their first ever goal, against Morocco.

He went on to play as a forward for Lee Valley Lions and Streatham Redskins in the English National Ice Hockey League – as well as working for leisure provider GLL at Streatham ice rink.

At that same time, Kerbouche continued his determined efforts to spread the growth of the sport in his parents’ homeland – quite a challenge with only one permanent ice rink and minimal government backing.

“The rink is in a mall and it’s not Olympic size – it’s only really suitable for ice skating and kids’ games,” explained Kerbouche, who now works in Poplar. “To be honest, some people in Algeria think it’s a bit of a joke.

“It’s difficult to get sponsorship – we do usually find it but it’s usually a last-minute thing. For the recent African Club Cup in Morocco we had someone sponsor our uniforms about three or four weeks beforehand.

“There is money in Algerian sport but it goes mostly towards football – especially as we’ve been in the last two World Cups and have quite a few players in the Premier League, like Riyad Mahrez.

“With that said, we do get support from the public – on Facebook we’ve got 120,000 followers and more than 6,000 on Twitter.

“Kids in Algeria are skating on roller blades so I think the potential is there and I’d love to bring in a new activity for them. When I was a kid, the biggest issues were the cost of equipment and ice time and those will be the same issues we have to deal with in Algeria.”

Kerbouche and his team-mates, who competed under the label of Algiers Corsaires for their third-place finish at the African Club Cup, are aiming to build on that by winning next year’s tournament.

He added: “It was all a bit rushed in terms of getting players together, with people booking their tickets the week before the tournament, but we learned a lot from it.

“Next summer it’ll be a big improvement and our objective is to win it.

“We’ve managed to get a $15,000 grant from the NHL for ice hockey in Algeria and that also should help us to get better facilities for the sport.”

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